Azkaban
by SteelGuardian24
Summary: One shot about the night of Sirius Black escape's from Azkaban. Very slightly AU.


**Disclaimer****: I own nothing that I write about. I am simply playing in Mrs. Rowling's sandbox. **

He was free.

After twelve years and five attempts at escape, he was free.

Sirius Black, the man in question, has spent the last twelve years on the Rock. The Rock is only one of the many names given to the wizarding hell- hole known as Azkaban. Azkaban is, arguably, the most famous, or rather, infamous, prison in wizarding Europe. Located on an island in the middle of the North Sea, the prison is protected by fiends straight from the deepest depths of hell. Those fiends are the Dementors. Masked in darkness and incapable of speech or hearing, they have but one mission in life- to make their prey miserable. They prey off of all the happy thoughts and emotions that have happened in a persons like of anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. By sucking that person's happiness, they become cold, depressed, and their ultimate goal, of insane. Left unchecked, a dementor will eventually suck out a person's soul, leaving them as nothing but an empty, emotionless husk of the human they used to be. These guards are the reason that Azkaban is regarded as worse even than Nurmengard, the Dark Lord Grindelwald's own prison, of which he is the only prisoner.

Sirius was different, however. He was probably the only prisoner who was still very much sane. The only way he was able to keep his sanity was because he knew that he was innocent. Framed and convicted of murders that he had no part in doing, Sirius was sent to Azkaban soon after Halloween night, 1981. If Sirius had a true trial and not been just another "Death Eater" for a very corrupt government, he would have had his name cleared in no time. As it was, though, Sirius didn't have a trial. He didn't even have a hearing. He was simply arrested by the aurors, then thrown into Azkaban. Bartemius Crouch, then head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was an egotistical maniac parading around as one of the, "Leaders of the Light," but in truth, was only worried about advancing himself because he wanted to be Minister for Magic.

Being a dog animagus, he was able to avoid even more of the dementors effects, at first anyway. He, along with his friends James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, learned the transformation in their fifth year so they could be with their friend Remus Lupin, who was a werewolf, during his monthly transformations. James and Sirius transformed into such large animals that they were able to subdue Remus when he first changed and then run around with him and keep him from hurting himself, or God forbid, someone else. Remus always said he felt less animal and more human when they were with him, and in the days before the Wolfsbane potion, they were the closest he could get to an easy transformation.

The four of them were also inseparable. They did everything together. They had each others back through thick and thin, love and heartbreak, through each test and prank, and even being James' best men during his wedding. They were more than best friends; they were brothers. Family.

However, to one of them, that word meant nothing, for he would eventually betray James' wife and son to the current dark lord, Lord Voldemort.

They say that when you're an animagus, that animal that you can change into defines your inner characteristics, not only the ones that everyone else see's, but more so the ones that only you see. James was a stag because he was strong, tall, quick and extremely agile, for he was one of the best chasers to come through Hogwarts in years. Sirius was a large dog because he was stocky, hot tempered, and when angered, very powerful, however he was also loving and extremely loyal. All that leaves is Peter. Peter was a Rat.

Soon after James was married to Lily, he was moved into hiding by the leader of the Light, Albus Dumbledore. The reason in doing so was because there was a prophecy spoken by the Seer Sybill Trelawney that says, _"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.…the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…" _In layman's term, the prophecy states that one of two people will eventually destroy Voldemort. The two people in question were Neville Longbottom, and James Potter's own son, Harry.

Once the the people that the prophecy pertained to were found out, they were quickly put under the protection of a very powerful spell known as the Fidelius Charm. This charm would completely shield a house so that only people who were told were the house was located by the secret keeper were allowed in. The Potter's secret keeper was none other that Peter himself.

When they assigned him the role of secret keeper, they didn't know that he was actually Voldemort's spy who would in turn betray them and tell him the location of the Potters house. They only thought that he was their friend who no one would expect was their secret keeper, when the person that everyone did expect it to be, was never actually the secret keeper. That person was Sirius Black.

He was James' best friend since their first year of Hogwarts, so it was obvious to everyone that he was he secret keeper, yet he wasn't. By making Peter the secret keeper, they had the perfect decoy in Sirius. He knew that Voldemort would come searching for him first, and when he caught him, it would hopefully give Peter, the real secret keeper, time to escape, but oh, how wrong they all were.

After Peter gave Voldemort the secret and James and Lily had been murdered, Sirius immediately knew who was responsible, and, because of his short temper, he wanted to go after Peter. He wanted to make him suffer like he had made James and Lily and himself suffer. He wanted to make him hurt. Mostly though, he wanted him to pay.

When he eventually tracked him down and confronted Peter in the middle of a crowded muggle street, he did what Sirius never expected from him. He shouted that Sirius was insane and was the one that betrayed the Potters. He then silently cast a spell that hit a gas line and caused it to explode, killing twelve muggles. While this was happening, Peter cut off his own finger, which would make him appear to have died in the explosion. After this all happened, Sirius merely sat down in the street and laughed like a maniac because the man who was supposed to be the dumbest of their group had outwitted them all. This was how the aurors found him soon after, further discrediting his innocence. The interviews by the witnesses, coupled with the fact that he was as good as James' brother, he was thrown in Azkaban almost immediately.

Once in prison, Sirius spent most of the next decade on the brink of insanity and wallowing in self grief and guilt, comforted only by the knowledge that he was innocent. During this period, he tried to escape four separate times. However, none of them were successful.

Eventually, he decided to take his time and carefully devise out a plan to get him out for good. He started to study the guards, both human and dementor, and started to notice some obvious patterns. One such pattern was that on Friday's, there was a stretch of about thirty minutes or so where there were no humans guards at all, for they were in the weekly security meeting and the dementors were burying the humans that had died that week. He heard all of these things through glimpses of conversation from passing guards, and one such glimpse was that Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, was coming for a visit.

On the minister's visit, he walked around and inspected the cells and the prison in general. When he reached Sirius's cell, Sirius asked if he could borrow his paper. A little bit uneasy to be around such a terrifying "murderer," he threw the newspaper in the cell and quickly walked off talking about deranged inmates. To be honest, Sirius just wanted something to use to plug a crack in the wall, but what he saw on the front page shocked him.

The front cover was mostly taken up by an article about one Arthur Weasley winning a lottery at the Ministry where he worked in Muggle Relations. However, it was the picture underneath said article that shook Sirius to his bones. The picture was of the Weasley family when they were on vacation in Egypt, but that wasn't what was strange about the picture. What was strange was the rat that Ron was holding. It looked exactly like Peter! On closer inspection, he saw that the rat was missing a single toe and knew immediately that it was him and where to find him.

Filled with a new rage and guilt, Sirius waited until the next Friday, and when the guards where all gone, he transformed into his animagus form for the first time in years.

When he had first got there, he was in that form almost every day. Eventually, though, his resolve was worn down and he lacked the strength to transform. Once he was filled with his new rage, he found the strength to transform again.

When he was in his dog form, he found that he was so malnourished that he was able to slip through the bars of his cell. From there, he made a bee line right out of the prison and down the steps that led to the sea.

Once down there, the dementors that were burying the body of some low-level Death Eater from the last war, took notice of him, but had no clue that it was actually a human because of the simplicity of a dogs brain.

From there, he swam, or rather doggy paddled, from the middle of the sea to a beach on the outskirts of London. The swim took him almost six hours to complete, and during that time, he was almost ran over by muggle ships twice and near the end, he almost passed out from exhaustion. Reaching the beach, he somehow drug himself to the beach which is where he sat now.

Sirius knew that Ron would be going to Hogwarts in a few weeks, so he had to make it to Diagon Alley before then and before the family had completed their shopping, but first he wanted to find Harry.

Speaking for the first time in twelve years, Sirius said to himself, "I'm so sorry Harry." What came out was not much more than a croak, but it was more than enough to steel his resolve again.

He would find Harry and he would protect him at all costs, even if it meant his life. He messed up last time and he would be damned if he let himself mess up again.

Standing up and gazing at the lights of London just as the sun was starting to set, he said out loud, "I'm coming Harry." and with that, he set off to find his Godson.

**That's it guys! There's my first story! This was just a simple one shot, of which the idea came during English class today. I look forward to real you guys' feed back, but please keep in mind, that I'm only 17, and even though I'm in Honors English, it's still not as good as some people on here. Please though, leave me lots of reviews! I'm thinking about starting a series soon, so be on the lookout for that. Thanks again guys!**

**-SteelGuardian**


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